UK's Southern Water Uses Telecom Fiber to Monitor Water Supply Network Leaks

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 24, UK-based Southern Water began using Lightsonic distributed fiber optic sensing technology to monitor underground water supply pipe leaks via Openreach's existing all-fiber communication network. The system does not require laying a separate sensing network along the water supply pipelines; instead, it directly uses nearby existing communication fiber to collect underground vibration signals and identify anomalous features that may correspond to leak points.

This technology converts communication cables into continuously distributed acoustic sensors by analyzing subtle changes in optical signals within the fiber. A machine learning system is used to distinguish vibrations generated by leaks from background noise such as road traffic and construction, and to calculate suspected leak locations, providing positioning data for maintenance personnel.

Lightsonic has previously conducted similar technology trials with Openreach and Affinity Water, covering 5 areas and approximately 650 kilometers of water supply network. Openreach disclosed in March this year that after 3 months of operation, the relevant trials helped discover and address multiple leak points, corresponding to a reduction of approximately 2 million liters per day in water loss.

This Southern Water project introduces the same type of distributed fiber optic sensing technology into its water supply network to expand the scope of underground leak monitoring. Southern Water's service area covers multiple regions in southern England. At this stage, publicly available information has not yet disclosed the specific length of monitoring fiber, the scale of water supply pipelines covered, the investment amount, or the number of deployment sites for this round.

The system uses existing telecommunications infrastructure to simultaneously perform communication and infrastructure sensing functions. For fiber network operators such as Openreach, existing optical cables can add monitoring capabilities for underground pipelines, roads, and other infrastructure without changing their primary communication purpose.